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Trying to #BeReal

I love being a purveyor of beauty – not just your common or garden variety beauty (I mean, sure, flowers and nature and sunset skies have their place and all…) but beauty of a calibre which can bring rich princes to their knees with keen aesthetic desire (and more) and satiate every pang of their incredible hunger for gorgeousness – and yes, it pays too, so there’s always that reward to go with the more inherent aspects of my role.

Take today, for instance: the culmination of several months of hard graft, negotiations and…well, okay, a certain amount of ‘taking’, but really, whenever I take, it’s because I know that someone, somewhere is going to want my produce FAR more than whoever it was wasted on before I took it – I sent the latest set by airplane to my guy, who will do the actual selling, and then I’ll get my cut.

The thing is, it takes unimaginable amounts of effort to do what I do, and because of the shady nature of the beast, I tend to not tell anyone…this is kind of a big deal for me to even say anything, but believe me – I’m GOOD! And however it is that I obtain my produce, I always see to it that they never mind: beautiful young things, kept off their faces on whatever cocktails combinations of drugs and booze will keep them quiet and acquiescent (and if it doesn’t work, I get to involve myself in the ‘persuasion’, which is a total added bonus and something I rather enjoy (though my clients prefer if I go gently – they like to think they’re the first ones ‘there’, if ya know what I mean…)) and their time with me tends to pass peacefully enough – come on, these beauties are my meal ticket; I’d be MAD to treat them with anything less than kindness, care, and the odd indulgent moment for me when their proximity and gorgeous physiques just get too much.

Fuel costs are rising, though, and every time I send a set, I feel the pinch – I’m shipping them at a ridiculously huge amount of money per pound – even though I know I’ll be handsomely reimbursed, and it just makes me so relieved that most of my clients like the thinner ones, because the fatties are a particular brand of taste I always resent paying to assuage.

When the bank transfers come in, though, I KNOW I’ve done well – especially if there’s a tip (the handsomer the better) – and I can begin planning my next grouping, wondering which markets haven’t been played for a while, and where I should next start sourcing for perfection – those gorgeous little rainmakers.

This week’s prompt was POUND, and I got to thinking about the effort so many of my friends make to proliferate and nurture a culture where women aren’t reduced to the sum of their parts…which puddle-jumped my brain into thinking about girls (and presumably, boys) who seriously ARE reduced to the sum of their parts and sold, that others might enjoy them,

Very few things make me angrier than reading about people being sold into sex-slavery. Which still, somehow, AWFULLY, happens, and it tears me to pieces. I know that’s the far-end of extreme, in terms of people’s worth being reduced to their looks, but we *do* live in a culture which does this, and even in small doses it’s damaging, because it becomes the norm and sets expectations of certain behaviours, body types, or revealings, in order to be ‘acceptable’.

Thus endeth the lesson. Nearly. Because every time I read about sex trafficking, the more incensed I get that it seems to be something SO much more prevalent than I knew, and quite possibly something I’ve all contributed to the culture of, for the sake of a bunch of ‘likes’.

Today, to combat a new hashtag meme which is doing the rounds and encouraging people to reduce themselves to the sum of their parts for social media attention, my darling friend Hasty (@hastywords on Instagram and Twitter) came up with the perfect thing to combat it – an invitation to post a picture exactly as you are rightnow, and tag it #BeReal; because that’s all we should ever need to be, to be accepted.

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45 thoughts on “Trying to #BeReal”

Great job in raising awareness of slavery in our modern world. UNtil a few years ago, I naively thought that slavery was something of the past but thanks to some organisations working hard to raise awareness, the word is getting out and attempts are being made to give people back their freedom as well as setting up things like home businesses to support themselves. I don’t know what sort of impact this is having on the overall problem but supporting these women by buying their products is a way we can help. I’ve been to a few fair trade parties where you can buy these things and I was thrilled to buy such amazing things and could justify it by helping a worthy cause.

I definitely think that things like the fair trade movement have been making inroads. I doubt there’s the same kind of thing for the sex industry, and that monster is altogether bigger and nastier and more unmanageable.

A fascinating take from the point of view of such awful perpetrators. A friend of mine nearly lost her granddaughter to one of these people who works in our area, and it makes me sick every time i think of what they do.

I saw the #BeReal photos going around but I’ve been sort of absent this week in the blogosphere. What I think makes your story so exceptional is that it is told from the perspective of the taker, the sleazy trafficker. I too like the “wham” line.

The actual, PROPER post is over at Sisterwives (though this one came first) and yeah – it’s all about being yourself, and knowing that you, as you are right now, however that is, are ACCEPTABLE. It’s a good tag, and Hasty had a glorious idea in creating it. It matters.

Thanks for liking my fiction. I had rather a lot of fun writing it, trying to make the character seem almost sympathetic before the big reveal… 😉

argh. man. I dont even know what to write… just ugh. Not at your writing of course… Its important to address this stuff … I think my life experience is just burning me a bit lately… so argh and ugh is my best … but I will put up a selfie once my first world problem of phone idiocy is resolved! Thanks Lizzi for taking on the tough stuff.

You are so gorgeous in that selfie.
As for if I’ll join you,um probably not. Selfies and I are horrible. As for sex-trafficking, that is just horrendous. However as long as there is a market for that kind of thing there will be those that engage in the trade. There is really not a strong enough word for how horrid it is.

Yes – and that’s why we need MORE selfies, not fewer – we need EVERYONE of EVERY type and EVERY perception of themselves, to join in – to BeReal and to start undoing the idea that there are ‘standards of beauty’ to which they should comply before they can be acceptable. YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL, Serins, because you’re YOU!

I went to a writer’s group once, and the focus of the session was run-on sentences and how to avoid them. They’d have had a field day with your third paragraph! 😛 Personally I say that if you can read the whole sentence and still understand it, it’s not too long.

Great story, cool twist, all the usual accolades. And “those gorgeous little rainmakers”…you do a great ‘wham line’.

Hi Lizzi! Yes, it’s really me. I just wanted to stop by and say though I’m still on my long leave from blogging. I am in total agreement with you on sex slavery. It is horrible! You absolutely know how to rock an impromptu selfie. Methinks your beauty never allows for a bad hair day! 🙂 That is a compliment 🙂

MIKE MIKE MIKE! SO GOOD TO SEE YOU 😀 😀 😀 I hope you come back from leave soon (yaknow, when you’re ready). And yes. Sex slavery and the whole industry is just heinous, but a woefully unstoppable force. I hope that encouraging movements where people embrace their own selves and stop looking to others for validation will at least generate interest and exposure in people accepting their own selves, however they are, and not feeling the need for approval from others. I’m not there yet (by a LONG chalk), but I’ll give it my best shot, because it’s important.

We do, and I have a horrid feeling that the exploitation is far, far more prevalent than any of us prefers to admit. Even without casting my mind too far, I can think of at least two people I know in person who’ve worked in the sex trade at some point in their lives…

You do. We all are works in progress. We could all improve, everyday. Thank you for that reminder. I’m still semi-anonymous here – so thankfully I don’t have to worry about this.
But you all that follow me on Instagram have seen me without makeup, with makeup, tired, skinny, chubby, up, down, you name it.